Candidate Forum Tonight

Tonight is the candidate forum where the 8 candidates for 3 seats on the Lake Forest City Council will gather at the clubhouse at Lake 2 to answer questions posed by moderator Jim Richert. If he does as he’s done in the past, Jim will give audience members the opportunity to ask questions, and he may even ask a personal question for each of the candidates. Generally at a forum the question is broad enough for everyone to respond – e.g., “How can we reduce the relatively high crime rate in Lake Forest?” But sometimes an individual question can be asked for each candidate, and this can be even more revealing.

Here’s a list of suggested specific questions for specific candidates.

DAVE BASS

What do you feel you accomplished during the 11 months you spent on the Council? You’ve been criticized for doing practically nothing. You haven’t introduced or sponsored any legislation, and often voted against some initiatives that seem positive. For example, you opposed a traffic commission, a sunshine ordinance, an anti-corruption ordinance, campaign finance limits, a non-profit community foundation, etc.

OTOH, you voted for the City to spend thousands of dollars equipping Council and Planning Commission members with iPads, voted to spend $14K per year so you and your colleagues can file electronically instead of by hand, voted to increase trash fees by an average of 25%, etc.

Some people say it’s a pretty dismal record so why should people vote for you to continue performing as he have?

TOM CAGLEY

You’re a recent arrival in our City. What makes you think you have sufficient knowledge to serve on the Council?

JIM GARDNER

You’ve run for office before and lost several times. What makes you believe that you can win now?

ANDREW HAMILTON

Many people point out that your tenure on the Planning Commission has been marred by more appeals and decision overturned, longer meetings with fewer accomplishments, more flip flops, and a higher use of outside lawyers than ever before. In addition, you’ve been criticized for ignoring the quality of life of residents in favor of promoting businesses, as when you approved the Brookfield/Trumark projects or when you recently voted to add more stores selling beer and wine in a city already oversaturated. What do you say to your critics?

MIKE HEALY and LIZ MILLER

You’re running for City Council and yet you don’t have much of a track record participating in City government. Don’t you think sitting on the Council is a little premature?

KATHRYN MCCULLOUGH

Right now you are being investigated by the OC DA’s office for mis-using public funds, and you are also being investigated by the FPPC for funds that went missing from your campaign committee. You’ve also been criticized for lying from the dais, and for treating public speakers without the respect mandated by the City’s code of ethics. What do you say to your critics?

SCOTT VOIGTS

You claim that your religion is an important part of your life, and yet you’ve done many things which do not reflect what many people would call the “good” life. You have been caught lying many times from the dais, and recently you tried to solicit funds for your election campaign claiming you were the Mayor, which you are not. Just a week ago you violated the campaign sign law – the only person to do so. Even more problematic, your track record of accepting contributions to your campaign committee and then voting in favor of the people who gave you money makes it look, to a reasonable person, like you accept bribes. How do you reconcile your actual behavior with your religious beliefs?

About Jim Gardner:

Dr. Jim Gardner is running for City Council in Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook.

RDZ